


And if we can't be Together, we'll touch at the Edge of the Universe

by Amrynth



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: AU August, Alternate Universe - Demigods, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25779643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrynth/pseuds/Amrynth
Summary: Vax'ildan is a god of shadow and Keyleth a goddess of sun.  It's impossible for them to touch except at the edges where the sunlight meets the shadow.
Relationships: Keyleth/Vax'ildan (Critical Role)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	And if we can't be Together, we'll touch at the Edge of the Universe

**Author's Note:**

> Day Seven of AU August and the prompt was Demigods! I really intended to make a "It's fine. We're gods." joke which is why I chose Keyleth for this. And then I ended up doing something softer that didn't quite fit the joke. Ah well. Maybe next time.

Vex stomped into the temple, cool shadow sliding across her skin as soon as she arrived. Her arrival was a bit like a tempest, even if as a demigod she only presided over archery. When she walked into a room, the room stopped and waited for her permission to resume what it was doing. Except that she’s stormed into the temple of the Raven Queen; a full goddess rather than one of the many demigods who served beneath the gods. Slow to follow in her steps, Trinket lumbered into the temple behind her.

“Brother. I know you’re here darling, come out and stop sulking.” 

She waited, arms crossed and unaccustomed to having to wait on other people. Vex was used to people waiting on her leisure, not the other way around. 

“Vax’ildan. If you do not-”

“Yes Stubby, I’m here,” he materialized from one of the shadows and pushed his hood back. 

They were both of them ethereally beautiful, but they could attribute that to their parents rather than their ascended godhood. Vex turned toward her twin brother, arms still crossed and looking annoyed. 

“Yes?” Vax was one of the few people who wasn’t intimidated by her stormy looks and she loved that about him. 

“I think you know precisely why I’m here. Why are you sulking here instead of being out in the sunshine. Out with her?” Vex still didn’t uncross her arms, staring her brother down like he’d personally done this to offend her. 

“Vex I- you don’t understand,” he withdrew into himself, shoulders rounding as he turned away from her. 

Her body language immediately softened and Vex dropped her arms to move to him. He caught his arm before he could turn away from her completely, pulling him back. “Then explain it to me. I don’t understand because it’s clear that you love Keyleth and she loves you. You’re two of the sappiest stupidest people when you talk about one another. Why are you hiding here?”

Even though the sleeve of his shirt, Vax’s arm was cool to the touch. He hadn’t always been like that, once upon a time he’d been as warm as Vex. But he spent too much time in the shadows, too much time with the dead and the warmth had gradually left him. 

“We cannot- exist at the same time like that. Not in the same space,” he explained, talking around it as best he could. 

“Really?” Vex blinked. “But you’re basically made of shadow, darling. What makes a shadow?”

He sighed, but played along. Vax already knew how this ended, he’d had this conversation with himself many times, trying to find a loophole. He’d had it with Keyleth, trying to tell her this time it would be okay, this time he would not-

“Light creates a shadow.” he said, answering Vex’s question.

“And Keyleth is?”

Vax tried so hard to control his face but he felt the smile before he spoke. “She’s the sun.”

“So if you think about it, you basically have your powers because of her,” Vex said, looking quite pleased like she had solved a riddle. 

“You’re not wrong, Stubby. But you’ve forgotten one key element. What happens to a shadow when you cast a light on it?” Vax asked, putting his hand over hers where it still held his arm. 

“It- oh.” Her face fell as she looked around the interior of the temple. All of the shadows were facing away from what sunlight was able to make it in through the entrance, but also faded away from the central altar covered in dark candles. 

“It wont work,” he said, summoning a smile to try and bring her smile back to her face. “We’re too opposite. It would be like- if you loved someone with a demon in his soul. You’re too pure for someone like that.” 

She snorted, an unladylike sound that made Vax actually smile. “Well. It’s a beautiful day outside which means your girlfriend,” she stressed this word, “is out there having a lovely day. Go lurk under a tree or something and make her day better. Stop being alone. Come on, Trinket. That’s not a tree you’re going to knock it over if you scratch yourself on it. Trinket! I have to go darling before my sweet boy brings the whole temple down and then I’ll have to deal with the Raven Queen.” 

Vax rubbed Trinket’s head when the bear stopped for attention on the way, hugged his sister, and watched them go. She wasn’t entirely wrong but Vax was never going to tell her that. Vex would never let him live it down. So he waited before walking outside, sticking to the long shadows cast by the row of columns leading to the temple entrance. 

He put his back against one of them and slowly eased his hand back along the round shape until he just reached the edge of the shadow. Vax could feel where his shadow ended and the sunlight began. 

The trees rustled and she was there, back against the same pillar and radiating warmth. Just at the edge, where shadow met sunlight, the tips of her fingers brushed against his.

“I missed you, Kiki,” Vax said, eyes closed. He could almost pretend they were next to one another like this. 

Keyleth breathed a laugh. “We always have where the sunlight meets the edges, Vax.”


End file.
